Eggs in the coffee, sheep in the corn

by Marjorie M. Douglas

"Tears of frustration and loneliness more than once filled the eyes of Marjorie Myers Douglas as she valiantly coped with her new status as a farmwife. Life on a western Minnesota stock ranch in the years during and after World War II was, after all, a far cry from growing up in her parents' Minneapolis home community of academics and her years as a medical social worker in New York City and St. Paul." "It all began in 1943 as a two-year plan to help Don's ill father avoid losing the 1,200-acre farm. With World War II pulling able-bodied men into the military, it was nearly impossible to find good farmhands, and Don felt an obligation to contribute to his father's physical and economic recovery from a severe heart attack. Leaving their modern suburban house behind, Marjorie, Don, and baby Anne moved their worldly goods to the simple farmhouse some three miles from the little town of Appleton." "For Marjorie it was more a challenge than just a change - a challenge that stretched far bey